WHS creates new ultimate frisbee team
The new WHS ultimate frisbee team celebrates after a goal.
May 1, 2018
WHS debuted its first ever competitive frisbee team this spring. With 27 players, the team has shown great potential and enthusiasm for the new sport.
In previous years, WHS has had a frisbee club, and students have learned how to throw a frisbee in Wellness classes lead by Scott Parseghian. This year will be the first year that students will play in games against competition from other schools.
Captains Tyler Brient and Matt Clayton were members of the frisbee club who wanted to scrimmage someone other than themselves. With this idea, they created Wayland’s first club frisbee team and recruited a small group of people to help with their new team. Coaches Terry Wong and Parseghian have gathered many athletes from different sports to teach and try out Ultimate Frisbee.
“Coach P is a big help in growing the sport right now,” Brient said. “He’s reaching out to kids who he knows are athletes and bringing them to practices to learn, and they’ve all performed really well. I think we already have a pretty good trajectory.”
Despite little practice time and many players who have never played before, the team has improved and learned from the two games they’ve played in so far. The team has many excellent athletes who have been able to pick up on the game very quickly.
“Right now a bunch of our players are athletes, but even between our two games there was a huge improvement in everyone understanding the game itself,” Brient said. “Obviously we also want to succeed and win games, but being a first year team we can’t expect too much. We mostly want to establish and grow the sport.”
With games scheduled against teams including Concord-Carlisle, Bedford, Newton South and Billerica, WHS’s frisbee team is on its way to becoming a school sport.
“We hope to sooner or later become a sponsored sport at the school, and I think that comes down to spreading the word, increasing interest in the sport, and performing well when we play. If we keep up the interest in the sport, I’m hopeful that we will be a school sponsored sport soon,” Brient said.
